It's the most........wonderful time..........of the year. Yup, less than one week till Christmas. My sister was singing a little ditty earlier about christmas in july about having christmas in los angeles, where "snow and ice can be really fun, but we'd much prefer the sun." or something. There was also a smog reference somewhere in there that i "lol'ed" at.
This is also the most wonderful time of the year for a fantasy owner who's still alive in the playoffs, and as i aluded to last time, that is no longer the case for me. It's all over. No more lineup changes, no more weather checks before game time, no more injury updates. Nope. Gotta just watch other people take what's rightfully mine. Haha. But honestly, not to be one of those guys who self-handicaps, but this season i was not on my fantasy football game. Whether for lack of interest, lack of time, combo of both, or some other factor, i just did not get my act together, got in the playoffs due to good drafts, but didn't get anywhere, and especially mailed it in that first playoff game.
But anyway, for those who ARE in the playoffs still, i'm doing a little run-down based on player histories and what u should do with those players.
Guy u should have no problem starting this week in the championship game is T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who has just been a fantasy stud this season and is facing an old friend, the CLE Def, who he went for 69 yds and 2 TD's last time. The only reason i mention this is cuz TJ has been cold the last few weeks, not finding the end zone for 4 straight weeks nor getting past 70 yds, not to mention 100 yds. However, i don't care if this game is snowing at game time, the weather's horrible, or Santa Clause is on the way to ur house, don't forget to start TJ this week. Could make a huge difference. Same goes for chad johnson, carson palmer, and chris henry.
Don't forget then, in the same game, all ur browns like derek anderson, braylon edwards, kellen winslow, jamal lewis. This game went for 96 combined points last meeting. Browns need this win, but more importantly it's a rivalry game. That being said, it'll probably be an ugly 13-10 affair that makes fantasy owners wince. But prolly not.
Sometimes Defenses can win games for u because they're really explosive but also very volatile. You could very easily get 1 point from ur defense or get 19, it's very shaky. However, these plays are not shaky this week:
Green Bay at Chicago, start Green Bay D against kyle orton, man, that's 6 sacks waiting to happen.
Pittsburgh @ STL: u might think rams still have some fight left and on their home turf, but pittsburgh really needs this game, and they'll improve their shoddy defense recently and rebound. They really need to cuz cleveland doesn't look like it's gonna lose.
Minnesota vs. Washington: Like i said last time, minnesota's had 8 TD's by their D. Could do it again this week vs. Todd Collins, Washington will have white knuckles cuz it's do or die for them, but minnesota wins on its home turf.
Try to find kickers in good environments. You've prolly heard this before, but sometimes the exceptions make u wonder. Like last year, on a blustering day in buffalo, i decided rian lindell wouldn't do very well w/ the conditions, so i took him out, only to see him kick 5 FG's that day and defy air. But that's really an exception, and i made a smart play that day, it just didn't work out. Do the smart play all the time, and most of the time it will. It's also obviously a combo of factors with ur offenses. I still wouldn't stay away from mason crosby in chicago cuz green bay will still score. I would definitely go with josh scobee at home vs. oak, shaun suisham in the dome at minnesota, adam vinateri in the indy dome, ryan longwell for same reason, jeff reed in the stl dome, jason hanson in the silverdome. I'd maybe check the conditions in cincinatti or tennesee to see if they're okay, i'd still start phil dawson or shayne graham if the weather's cooperating just cuz that game stands to see fireworks.
Please start earnest graham. Man's a workhorse and has been rewarding u all year. At least a TD in 6 straight games. Such a solid sleeper.
Don't let the split carries and inconsistency fool u, u still gotta start marion barber this week. I don't care if u have 2 solid RB's otherwise. Barber's due for a big day.
Along the same lines, if u survived through tony romo's terrible day last week, don't make the mistake of thinking he'll do it again. Don't buy into that distraction with Jessica Simpson stuff. Good QB's are good no matter what. The only concern would be that thumb, but if he plays he should be fine. The panthers prolly won't have any answer for a romo-owens connection.
I would hold off on maurice jones-drew this week. Sure, they're facing one of the worst run defenses in NFL, but i'm think fragile fred gets a lot of the carries. However, if u start jones-drew it probably won't hurt too bad, he'll at least get some touches.
I would bench eli manning this week. This guy lost it for me last week, lemme tell u from one manning to another that watching him is a headache, and that's not good when ur a fantasy player. Not only that, he really stopped plaxico from being the dominant force he was in the beginning of the season, and burress really needs to be reconsidered this week, especially in prolly bad conditions in buffalo and the bills actually being semi-decent. Be careful.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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